To Live is Revenge Enough
by Nahsume
Summary: Bowser was sick and tired of Mario beating him. The solution? Make sure Mario could never fight again.
1. Chapter 1

Birds chirped overhead as Mario and Luigi walked through the dense forest, heading to Bowser's castle to once again to rescue Peach.

"Come on Luigi, walk a little faster," Mario yelled back to Luigi, who was watching the fish swim around in the small pond.

Startled, Luigi looked up and sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry bro," Luigi replied running to catch up with his brother, taking in deep breaths when he stopped.

"Do you know how much farther away we are from the castle?" Luigi asked as he was fairly tired from all the walking that they had done today.

In response, Mario pulled a map out of his pocket and unfolded it, tracing the route they were talking with his fingers to show Luigi exactly where they were.

"About another hour or two bro, then all we have to do is get the Princess and get out, which won't be hard at all. Bowser doesn't have the toughest guards," Mario said to him chuckling slightly.

Yes, it was true. The guards posed little to no challenge for the brothers, and if they worked together it took even less time.

Putting the map back in his pocket, Mario continued on, motioning for Luigi to continue to follow him.

* * *

Finally after climbing the gigantic hill, they reached the castle, and the thought of taking a very long rest after this gave them energy to keep going.

The drawbridge was down, and a few koopa troopa minions guarded the entrance, ready to pull it up at the moment's notice they saw the brothers or any other threat.

They quickly threw themselves behind two tress next to each other. Mario looked over at Luigi and held up his hand, beginning to count down from 5, and Luigi braced himself.

Right after he reached, they both sprinted towards the guards, who in response pulled the lever to bring the bridge up.

It was more than enough time though for the brothers to easily run across it and jump off the heads of a few koopa guards, who curled into their shells to avoid any more injury.

Sirens ran through the air in the castle as they nodded to each other and split down different hallways, the one that they knew led to the wanted destinations.

Mario ran through the hallways, dancing around a few enemies that had nothing to use but their bare hands and some measly spears.

Mario felt uneasy. Normally, enemies littered the halls of Bowser's castle, but now, only a few seemed to try to stop him. Foolishly, he blew his feelings off and continued to his destination.

After running down the hallway for some time, he came to stand in front of large red doors with golden ring pulls. Pulling the ring back he opened the door to stand face to face with a giant Koopa, the leader of them all, Bowser. Bowser smirked at Mario, it would be different this time.

* * *

On the other end, Luigi raced through the hallways (which were too filled with just as little enemies), and jumped down the stairs that led him to the basement.

He yelped as he saw a mouse run past him. He could handle being attacked with weapons, but at the sight of such a small thing as a mouse, he freaked out.

"Luigi," He heard someone shout sweetly, "Over here!"

Following the voice he eventually came to a cell in the dark, damp basement, which held no one other than princess Peach herself.

"Oh I was beginning to think something had happened to you two," She said her blue eyes shining brightly as Luigi looked for the key to her cell.

"Ah, you know we'd never leave you here princess, now we'd be the monster if we did that."

They both chuckled at the remark as Luigi unlocked the door and Peach stepped out of the cell, brushing off her pink dress and huffing at all the dirt that was on it.

"Ugh, simply horrible. Why he think anything between our two kingdoms will get better when he does things like this befuddle me to no end."

"Well we both know he's not that bright," The green clad brother said to her, a warm smile on his face.

She smiled back to him, and they started to walk out of the dungeon, with rarely any enemy coming in his path.

Quickly, he led Peach outside (putting the draw bridge down in order to get out) and walked her into the forest to the point Mario and he had decided to rendezvous at.

Silence met them as they waited for Mario to come back from teaching Bowser a lesson.

For some time they stood around waiting for Mario, then Luigi narrowed his eyes in worry.

"Wait here," He told her, "I'm going to go and see what's going on."

After a brief nod from Peach, Luigi ran out of the lush forest and back into the castle as nobody had pulled the bridge up again.

He didn't know the route to Bowser as well as Mario did, but he managed to find his way around, and eventually he got closer, he heard a scream that sounded familiarly like his brother's.

This made Luigi run even faster as he followed the screams, hoping that he wasn't going to be met with a horrible sight, but when was luck on his side.

Not ever, especially not today it seemed.

As he came to Bowser's throne room he saw Mario curled into himself, his arms over his head to protect himself as minions pelted him with their spears (most of them were semi-blunt, but the ones that weren't tore into his brother) and Bowser easily kicking and hitting him around.

Luigi saw red and adrenaline pumped through him as he hit minions away and swopped down to pick up Mario, who whimpered and Luigi's shirt turned dark with blood.

"Well, well, well," Bowser said chuckling, "Look who we have here." Bowser glared down at him and Luigi clutched Mario tighter to him, and blocked out the whimpering that he made in response.

Bower's minions laughed and made faces at him, mocking him. "Do you need to be taught a lesson too?" Bowser asked and the noise increased at the thought of repeating the process to the little brother of Mario.

"He wasn't that hard to get down, all my minions against one. But that's what he gets for picking on them all the time." Bowser chuckled.

Although Luigi had stayed silent until then a thought struck him. The lack of minions made all too much sense now, and his eyes showed this new realization.

"Yes, I see you know now what happened. All's fair though in war."

Luigi slowly backed up, and as he moved his realized his shirt was soaked in blood.

Cursing under his breath, he quickly turned around and ran. He wanted to settle his problem with Bowser, but getting the dying bundle in his hands attention was more important.

Minions began to chase after him, but Bowser bared his sharp blinding white teeth and growled at them.

"No, let them leave," He said smirking, "We've had our fun, and we'll have just as much fun when he comes back."

Bowser's laugh echoed throughout the castle and Luigi's ears.


	2. Chapter 2

Luigi was panting as he reached the entrance to Bowser's castle and ran across the bridge and into the lush forest. Mario was practically a dead weight in his arms and blood still oozed out of him although at a slower pace. What he was scared of most was how his brother no longer reacted as much to his actions as he did before and seemed limp in his grip.

In what felt like forever to Luigi, he finally found Peach in the spot he left her and stopped in front of her catching his breath. As she saw Mario, she gasped in horror and put a gloved hand to her mouth, rushing over to him.

"What happened? Is he alive?" She asked bombarding him with questions, "And are you okay?" She added on, noticing the blood that had mixed into the blue in his overalls, staining them with memories of the moment.

"I'd love to explain, but maybe we can do it while we're walking okay? I really don't want any more trouble, we should leave as soon as possible." He said taking a deep breath and beginning to walk, looking over his shoulder to see the princess following him.

They walked at a semi-fast pace, only slowing down slightly as they got very far away from the castle. Occasionally Peach would ask Luigi a question, which he would ignore, too focused on what had happened. Once and a while, Luigi wouldn't see a branch and he would stumble, eliciting a slight response from Mario although he seemed to be more or less numb to the world at this point.

Finally, Peach had enough and ran in front of Luigi, blocking his path.

"Now listen Luigi, what happened?!" Peach said demanding answers.

"Bowser happened." He replied coldly, not towards Peach, but toward Bowser and his minions, "He had his minions help him gang up on Mario."

"Also, I think you'd know by now he's alive, but I don't want to risk how much longer. I think we're far away enough from the castle for yoshis to start showing up, or at least we will be soon. Let's try to ask one of them to help us carry Mario back, my arms are getting tired."

Without any more words, Luigi walked around the Princess and continued to walk. It wasn't that he was mad at the Princess, he just wanted to get Mario help and as fast as possible, and she wanted to talk.

Huffing, Peach followed after him. Still wanting answers, but she would bite her tongue for now.

* * *

A black yoshi poked its head out from behind a tree. It blended in so well with its surroundings that Luigi would have not noticed it had it not been for its big blue eyes and bright white shoes.

"Hey you!" Luigi shouted to the yoshi.

The yoshi hid behind the tree more at the shout and looked curiously at him wondering what he needed.

"Could you please help us? My brother needs a faster transport, he's badly injured." Luigi said pleading with the yoshi, hoping that he would help them.

"We just need to get to Toad Town." He said trying to convince the yoshi to help him as Toad Town wasn't that far for a yoshi to run to.

The yoshi seemed to think it over for a bit, and eventually nodded to Luigi. He called out behind him and a few more yoshis of all different colors emerged behind him, looking at them with the same curious eyes the black yoshi possessed. The black yoshi smiling as he walked over to them.

When the yoshi allowed Mario to be placed on his back Luigi sighed in relief and rubbed his arms. As much as he didn't mind carrying around Mario, it felt nice not to.

Luigi made sure that Mario was slumped against the yoshi in a way that would prevent him from slipping off as easily, but at the same time, was still comfortable for the yoshi.

Suddenly, a pink and red yoshi approached both Peach and Luigi. The pink yoshi stood out in the dark forest and had bright yellow shoes. The red yoshi on the other hand had dull purple shoes. The pink one nuzzled into Luigi and the red did the same with Peach.

"Do you know these yoshi?" Peach asked Luigi. Both Mario and Luigi knew a lot of the yoshis due to be with them when they were kids.

"No I don't believe I know any of these yoshi." Luigi said awkwardly petting the yoshi's head.

The yoshi said something to him a few times in its own language, then turned around, waiting for Luigi to hop on its back so they could get going.

Taking the signal, Luigi jumped onto the yoshi's back and looked back at Peach who gave him a wink upon him seeing her already ready to go.

He coughed, and the pink yoshi chuckled at him, causing his cheeks to become a deep shade of crimson.

"Well then, onwards!" Luigi proclaimed and he heard the yoshis cheer out as the black, red, and pink yoshi ran for Toad Town.

They got to Toad Town way faster than they would have had they walked by foot. Despite all the times they had to shortly stop and make sure that Mario was still firmly on the yoshi, it cut their time down by a lot.

As they got close to the town, Luigi called the yoshi to a halt.

"I think we can handle it from here," He told them not wanting to cause chaos by running straight through town on a yoshi with a dead-looking Mario on one and Peach on another.

Luigi dismounted the yoshi as did Peach and they removed Mario from the other yoshi, Luigi feeling his arms aching already and started to regret the decision to let the yoshis go so early.

"Thank you so much!" Luigi exclaimed to them, as they waved back to him preparing to leave.

As they turned around to start to leave, Luigi bit his lip.

"Wait!" He cried out to them, and they looked back at him, showing they were listening.

"Why don't you guys wait here, and I'll return with some food or something in a bit."

They spoke among themselves and eventually they walked back and nodded.

"Great, just wait here guys!" Luigi yelled over his shoulder, already starting to dash the remainder of the way to Toad Town with Peach trying to keep up with him.

Eventaully, they found their way through town, running through the crowds of toads who tried to look at Mario. Soon they came to the clinic where they were greeted by Dr. Toadly, who seemed to have known that they would come for him. He pointed to the room on the right and they followed him in and laid Mario on the bed.

Almost immediately, nurses swarmed around Mario and pushed Peach and Luigi out of the room.

"I'm sorry, I know you want to be there for him, but we can't have you in here with us. Sorry."

Luigi raised a hand to protest, but the door was closed before he had the chance to utter a word.

* * *

**I'm glad so many of you liked the story! Hope you like this chapter too!**


	3. Chapter 3

Luigi stared at the door for a few seconds, as his hand slowly dropped back down to his side. Behind him, he barely heard a few sniffles coming from the princess over the loud roaring from the toads outside who had gathered around the hospital to see what had happened to their savior. The only reason that they hadn't broken down the door by now was due to strong blocks the hospital had placed over the door that were in place in case of an emergency.

Knowing that there was nothing he could do now but leave it up to the doctors, he took a seat next to Peach in a chair, his head facing towards the ground in exhaustment. The chair did nothing to relieve him as it was very uncomfortable and if he wasn't so drained from the events that had happened today, he would gladly stand.

"This… this is all my fault," The princess managed to sob out "If I didn't get captured again by Bowser, none of this would be happening!" She said, her voice raising with each word as she got madder at herself.

Luigi lifted his head up to look at her.

"It's not your fault," He reassured her, "Bowser's powerful, and I'm surprised that things went as well as they did in the past. To be honest, something like this should have happened a long time ago. But I suppose that's because Bowser's all power, and hardly has any brains of his own." He admitted chuckling, remembering how dumb Bowser could be at times.

"But you shouldn't have to save me every other week!" She glared at him.

"Listen," He demanded to her, "There's nothing you're going to say to Mario to make him think otherwise about saving you. He practically lives for it. He loves you a lot you know. I'm afraid there's nothing you can do to convince him to _not _go and save you."

She blushed a deep shade of crimson when he mentioned Mario's love of her.

"Yes I know he does, but love shouldn't mean that you should risk your life for that person."

Luigi shrugged, resting his hand down again and laced together his fingers.

"Well that's what Mario believes it is." He said the sentence so curtly Peach knew that he no longer wanted to touch on the topic of.

With each second, Luigi and Peach as well, grew more and more drowsy. Luigi hoped that the yoshis would stay where he had left them, he really did want to properly thank them.

Soon enough, their exhaustion took over them and despite the hard, uncomfortable chairs, they drifted off into a peaceful land.

* * *

A fierce hand shaking his shoulder woke him up.

Squinting from the sudden light, he yawned loudly, stretching his arms up. It only took him a few seconds to remember where he was before he woke up quickly.

Looking to his left, he saw that it was Peach who had awoken him and noted the doctors surrounding them.

"What happened?!" He demanded to no one in particular, not caring who answered as long as he got the news.

Who looked like the head doctor stepped forward and Luigi's heart beat shot up. He hoped and prayed that the only words that would come out of the doctor's mouth would be good.

"Uhmm…" The doctor began, clearing his throat.

"Well, you'll be glad to know that he'll live, but he's not in the best condition. He won't be able to leave for a while because we want to monitor him and make sure that he starts to get better and doesn't accidently get hurt. Furthermore, he's regained consciousness which is good, and we've taken the liberty of checking his head for any injures that might have happened."

Luigi nodded along as the doctor talked. Although he wasn't too keen on leaving his brother here, he understood that it was needed so they could make sure he doesn't open any wounds again.

"If you wish, you both can go and see him, one at a time though," The doctor told them, "He's quite drugged up right now so he might not be the most responsive to you."

"That's fine," Luigi replied hastily wanting to see his brother.

"I'll wait out here for right now." Peach told him knowing that Luigi should be the first one to go.

"Thank you, Peach." He replied gratefully.

With that, the doctor and Luigi walked to Mario's room. As the doctor opened the door, he was made aware of the multiple wires that were on the floor and took care not to trip on one.

An annoying steady beeping filled the room curiosity of the heart monitor attached to his brother. On the other hand supposed he should be happy that his brother even had a heartbeat.

His brother lay on the bed, one eye half open, which was looking straight at him, although he looked ready to pass out at any given second. He blended in with the sterile white bed, being so wrapped in pure white bandages. Most were around his stomach area, which was where he had gotten injured the most, most likely from Bowser's claws more than a minion's spear.

"I'll umm… be waiting outside, take as much time as you want." The doctor said closing the door once Luigi had confirmed he had heard him.

"Hey," He said softly walking over to the bed.

Mario tried to open his mouth to speak, but coughed instead, and looked desperately at the glass of water on the other side of the bed.

Luigi carefully reached over Mario, bringing the glass over and allowing his brother a little before placing it back.

"Hi," His brother spoke in a slurred voice from all the meds he had been forced to take.

For a bit, nobody seemed to know what to say to one another, so a silence fell over them.

"You… hurt?" His brother managed to say, through his haze.

Mario's question left him confused. Hurt? No he wasn't hurt. But then he remembered he hadn't been able to change his clothes yet. Sure enough, when he looked at his clothes, they were a dark purple-like shade, dyed with the blood of his brother.

"No, I'm fine," He said still retaining his soft voice, "It's just from when I was caring you. And not to complain, but I think you need to lay off a few things." He remarked with a smile, getting a lopsided one in return.

"Good," His brother remarked, quite clearly relaxed knowing Luigi hadn't been hurt.

Another silence fell over them, but this one wasn't as awkward as the other one.

"Peach is here to see you too, do you think that you want to see her?" He asked Mario.

A weak form of agreement came from his brother, clearly having a lot drained out of him just from a simple conversation.

"Okay, she'll be right in." He told his brother, before offering the water to Mario one last time and leaving.

Luigi heard a soft bye as he left the room and found the doctor a little down the hall.

Walking back to the lobby, Luigi stopped the doctor to ask him a question.

"How long do you think it'll be before he can come home?" Luigi wondered.

"He should be able to go home with you in a week or so." The doctor informed him, "We want to monitor him and make sure that everything goes smoothly and he doesn't do anything to make his condition worse. We can't have him bouncing around right away, that wouldn't be good now would it?" The doctor asked chuckling.

Luigi nodded understanding. The doctor was right, there would be no way he could always keep his eyes on Mario. As soon as he could he'd be on his feet, not resting another second. He'd only make his condition worse.

"You can still come and see him daily though." The doctor told him with a smile.

"Thank you." Luigi said, flashing a small smile.

When they finally got back to the lobby, both Luigi and the doctor noticed the lack of Peach.

"E-Excuse me nurse, have you seen were Princess Peach went?" Luigi asked politely, slightly stuttering.

The nurse looked up.

"Oh yes, she just started crying out of nowhere and then she just ran off! We tried to chase after her, but after the toads outside started to try to get in, we had to hold them back. She was heading for the castle though."

Another nurse chipped in, "Luckily, some royal guards came and disbursed the crowds outside. I'll imagine they're waiting for you to come out now and get whatever happened from you." She claimed.

Luigi groaned. He really wasn't in the mood for dealing with other people. He wasn't normally, but he especially wasn't into talking or being questioned right now. He wanted to talk to Peach, but couldn't be bothered at the moment. He would give her some time to sort things out on her own.

"Thank you." He replied. All he had to do was walk through town, avoid toads as best he could, go back to the yoshis and then go home. Even in his mind he knew it was easier said than done.

"I'll be back tomorrow." He told the doctor while walking over to the door, and the doctor nodded in response.

As Luigi opened the door, he felt about a thousand eyes seer their way into his forehead. When he looked around he found toads glancing at his out of the corner of his eyes, and he even caught a few guards on duty whispering while their eyes flicked over to him.

As he walked past a group of toads hurriedly, he heard one of them call for him.

"Hey Luigi," It called out to him, "So what happened to Mario?"

He ignored the question and kept walking. Similar questions were asked left and right, but he ignored them and kept on walking.

Finally he made it out of the town and some guards prevented the toads from chasing after him.

Mario and Luigi didn't live in Toad Town, but in a rather forest-like area. It was slightly a ways away from Toad Town to give Mario and Luigi a place away from the toads, but close enough that a toad could come and get them if anything bad happened.

Coming to the hills, he saw the yoshi running around, seemingly playing a game of tag with each other, a sound coming out of their mouths that Luigi had come to associate with laughter. When they spotted him, the red yoshi came running down to him, gently head-butted him and then ran away quickly.

He raised an eyebrow at them, soon picking up what they wanted him to do when he saw the red yoshi taunting him. They wanted him to join in.

He hated to be a killjoy, but he didn't feel in the mood for it right now.

"Sorry guys, I don't feel like doing anything right now. Maybe if you stick around we can play later?" He proposed, and the yoshis all looked sad.

The pink yoshi looked up at him with what could only be described as the cutest puppy face ever. Luigi felt his will crumpling when he looked at that face. He struggled to keep a strict looking face on the longer he looked at it.

Finally, he broke under the yoshi's gaze.

"Fine," He huffed out, and heard multiple cheers from the yoshis.

Paying back the pink yoshi for being so cute, he gently tapped it and ran away. The other yohsis seemed to get this and ran away, leaving the pink one to huff at him, clearly displeased with his actions.

Luigi chuckled at it, "Consider it payback."

Apparently the yoshi didn't like this and started to chase after him, to which Luigi ran away. Sharply going to the right, the pink yoshi tackled the red one, who was caught off guard. Thus commenced their great game of tag.

* * *

Luigi could vouch that the statement, "Time flies when you're having fun," was true. The yoshis had played tag with him all throughout the afternoon and it was very dark out now.

Luigi finally got the yoshis to stop and come back with him, which wasn't meet with much resistance as they were all very tired from playing for so long.

Despite his reluctance to play at first, he was glad that he had been convinced to do so. He had completely forgot about all of his worries, which were now slowly returning.

The walk to Mario and Luigi's house was quite, which Luigi was glad for as it gave him some time to think. Like what he was going to do with the yoshis. He had originally planned to give them some food, water, and send them off, but it was very late and he didn't feel good about sending them off in the middle of the night. Plus, he had gotten quite attached to them.

When they had finally gotten to his house, the yoshis looked well ready to collapse. He opened the door and informed them they could stay the night, leading them to the living room. When he showed them the living room, they promptly all fell onto the floor, instantly asleep.

Luigi shook his head, smiling at them. He would make them some food in the morning.

Making sure that everything was in order, Luigi went to the upstairs part of their house to the room that they shared. It didn't feel as weird as Luigi thought it would with Mario gone. He was slightly accustomed to it as not all journeys he got to go on with Mario and was used to spending days and even weeks without him.

He threw off the overalls and looked at the blood stains on them. They were practically garbage now as they had gotten deeply soaked in it. He threw it to the floor, too tired to deal with it now, and noted a similar occurrence on his green undershirt, which he also threw to the floor, replacing it with a night shirt.

Climbing into his bed, Luigi turned the tv on and let a blue glow light up the tv. Turning the light off, he was comforted with the dim glow from it, and eventually drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Waking up in the morning, Luigi rubbed his eyes and turned his face into the pillow, trying to escape the light.

He would have stayed like that for a while, had it not been for a loud noise down stairs that made him remember he had unsupervised yoshis messing around in his house.

His eyes shot open and he jumped out of bed, throwing on his pair of slippers that were next to his bed and rushing down the stairs.

He noticed the black and pink one were in the living room, and he rushed into the kitchen. He was greeted by multiple pots lying on the floor and a few boxes of snacks dented. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the red yoshi slowly withdraw his hand from the cookie jar, his eyes wide. The yoshi his the hand behind his back and began to slowly scoot away from the cookie jar and Luigi.

Closing the lid back on tightly, he scowled at the yoshi, who looked sheepishly around avoiding eye contact with Luigi.

As the red one walked back into the living room, the black and pink one snickered at him, mocking him for his defeat.

Luigi sighed and rolled his eyes. He looked at the mess on the floor and sighed. More dishes. Great.

Luigi opened the fridge and began to look for fruits, a yoshi favorite. He found a few apples, banana, and other fruits at the bottom. Even though he knew the yoshi normally ate the fruit uncleansed, he took the time to clean them if not for just for the sake of doing something.

One he was done, he arranged the fruits evenly onto plates and brought them to the yoshis, who eagerly ate the plate in record time, and also drank all the water Luigi had brought to them.

"Wow, you guys ate that fast." Luigi remarked chuckling at them as he made a mug of coffee for himself.

They didn't reply, instead opting to fall back asleep again before they had to leave, although the pink one stayed awake.

Luigi watched it for a while as it just stared straight ahead, seemingly deep in thought. Soon though, it followed its friend's footsteps and fell asleep too. As much as Luigi hated to admit it, he would be very sad when it came time to say goodbye to them, especially the pink one.

Not having much else to do, Luigi looked at the kitchen and sighed. Time to get to work and clean up.

* * *

It came a few hours late that the yoshi had to head back. They had been apart from their herd for a longer time than expected. Any longer and they fretted the other yoshis would storm the town looking for them.

When the yoshis began to depart, Luigi noticed that the pink one was not moving as fast as the other ones, and constantly turned back to look at him. The yoshi ahead stopped, noticing this too. When the pink one caught up, they seemed to converse for a while. The pink one just looked one more with a sad look on its face back to him and suddenly struck a peace sign pose, its sad look turning into one of a grand smile.

Luigi gladly gave it a peace sign back. He had a feeling that he would someday see that yoshi again.

The yoshi looked at him for a while, before nodding and turning around. As all the yoshis began their sprint back to the forest that they came from, Luigi watched until they were tiny dots and eventually went back inside when they became nothing.

The house once again had an air of loneliness that had temporarily been lifted by the yoshis. There was nobody here but himself at least until Mario got released.

He walked upstairs to his room and took out a journal, which was one of many. He wrote about what had happened the past few days, being quite late with writing two of them.

Even though he had drunk coffee, he didn't feel any type of buzz that was keeping him awake. He was quite sleepy actually. He had planned on visiting the princess today and talking to her, but figured it wouldn't hurt to talk to her tomorrow.


End file.
